'Fragmented History' Opens in Pannell Gallery

'Fragmented History' Opens in Pannell Gallery “Fragmented History: Pre-Columbian Artifacts from the Sweet Briar Collection” will open with a reception at 4:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 7 in Benedict Gallery at Sweet Briar College. The exhibit’s curator, junior Victoria Bradley of Richmond, will talk about researching and organizing the show, which will be on view through Dec. 5. The items on display range from household pottery to handmade and figurines.

During the spring semester, Bradley researched the history of the artifacts, uncovering what she could about their stories of origin. Little was known about many of the pieces, which come from sites in Peru, Mexico, Panama and other Hispanic countries and pre-date the European influences that followed the voyages of Christopher Columbus. Encompassing a number of periods and media, the objects were given to the College by faculty or alumnae donors. “The goal of the exhibition is to educate visitors on the intrinsic and mysterious provenances of the objects,” Bradley said. In some cases, however, the history of the pieces before they came to be in the possession of the donor remains a mystery.

Bradley did learn that Belle Boone Beard, a sociology professor at Sweet Briar from 1936 to 1963, brought back a number of the artifacts from her travels to Mexico. Although not an archaeologist, she participated in excavations at Teotihuacan — the largest city in pre-Columbian America, now named a UNESCO World Heritage Site — as well as sites in South America. Beard reportedly returned from one trip to Peru with numerous objects ready to be catalogued, Bradley said. “Of these was claimed to be a ‘Peruvian grave cloth’ from the ancient city of Pachacamac, Peru. Dr. Beard herself even professed excavating the cloth from the grave site.”